7 Proven

Ways To
Boost Your
Credit Score
By Dan Moskel
© 2016
All rights reserved
Table of Contents

1. The 7 Proven Ways To Boost Your Credit Score

2. The Ironclad Credit Bureau Dispute Process
3. How Does Credit Repair Work – 4 Facts Exposed
4. Medical Bills In Collections - 4 Keys
5. How To Rebuild Credit After Bankruptcy
 7 Proven Ways To Boost
Your Credit Score
There’s a plethora of pure unadulterated baloney about how to improve your credit
score. Regardless of your exact pathway to less than perfect credit, the big picture idea
is to build credit with responsible use. Along with removing the negative, damaging, and
derogatory marks on your credit reports.

Listen, your credit score is calculated by a company called Fair Isaac Corporation or
FICO. They determine your FICO score based upon the information contained on your
three credit reports with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

Your credit score is much akin to your Grade Point Average (GPA) with your credit
reports being viewed as your report card. If you’re acing all your classes but failing
underwater basket weaving your GPA is gonna be jacked. This same principle applies to
your credit score, one mistake, error, or derogatory listing is going to screw up your
credit score.

Anthony Sprauve, the spokesman for FICO, says collections on credit report files can
damage your credit score by up to 100 points. By the way a debt collection is one of the
most common types of bad credit.

1. Build a Trail of Positive Payment History

The first step we’re discussing is building a trail of positive on time payment history on
your credit reports. This will help to build your credit, and one of the obvious methods is
to pay your current monthly bills on time.

2. Show Unused Credit

This second tip is focusing on your amounts owed and utilization ratio, which is worth
30% of your credit score. This category examines your total debt and compares that to
your unused and available credit.

The idea here is to have available unused credit on your revolving lines of credit. For
example if you have a credit card with a limit of $1,500 you’d want to keep a monthly
balance of around 30% or $450. This way you’ll have $1,050 of available and unused
credit.

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Don’t worry if you have substantial debt in the form of a mortgage, car loan, student
loans, etc. Or the exact percentage of your credit limit you’re using, because there’s
claims that you’ll benefit the most from using only 10% and 20%, and as we shared
30% of your limit.

The takeaway is to pay down any significant debts on your revolving credit lines, such
as a credit card and to keep low monthly balances to help improve your utilization ratio.
And subsequently fixing your credit.

3. Display Responsible Use

If this sounds good and dandy but you don’t have a revolving line of credit, we
recommend investigating a secured MasterCard or Visa. These are designed for folks
with less than perfect credit and can help you display a positive payment history and
improve your utilization ratio.

Secured credit cards will require you to make a security deposit with the credit card
issuer or bank, and then you’ll be issued a Visa or MasterCard with a corresponding
limit. For instance, if you deposit $500 then you’d be issued a card with a limit of $500.

This security deposit is fully refundable provided you don’t default on your payments.
And your account will be reported monthly to all three credit bureaus. Additionally you’ll
be charged a slightly lower APR% or interest rate because your deposit eliminates
much of the risk for the credit card issuer.

4. Delinquent Debts

If you’re currently receiving obnoxious phone calls and demanding letters from debt
collectors, it’s mission critical you fully grasp your rights as a consumer granted by the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The vast majority of people will simply pay
off delinquent debt collections with the false belief this is how to repair credit.

The problem is when you simply pay old debts, this is only going to change the status of
the collection on credit report files to a paid collection. This is still a bad credit history
item and FICO says it can damage your credit score by up to 100 points.

Another frequent mistake is to ignore debt collectors with the forsaken belief they’ll just
disappear like a warm fart on a windy day. The most common result is you’ll be sued in
a civil court by a collection agency and with the intention of getting a judgement against
you.

This can cause your wages to be garnished, asset seizure, and even liens placed
against you. And the worst part of a judgement on credit report files is it’ll demolish your
credit score. This is one of the worst items to have on your credit reports, just short of a
bankruptcy.

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5. Dealing with Bill Collectors

The first step when it comes to dealing with bill collectors is to request debt validation on
your account. This is your right under the FDCPA and you’ll need to make your request
in writing using certified mail.

Once the collection agency gets your validation request they’re required to respond by
providing you with the evidence, documents, and paperwork that proves this is your
account. If they neglect to do this, then you’re no longer legally responsible for payment.

Moreover they’re suppose to contact all three of the credit bureaus to have them
remove collections from credit report files, regarding this account. This is how to get
collections off your credit report files.

If they do validate your debt, then you’ll want to examine the statute of limitations which
is a state law, so investigate your local listings. This legislation gives a legal time limit for
which you’re legally responsible for payment on a debt, and generally it’s about seven
years from the first date of delinquency.

This applies to most types of consumer debts including: charge offs, medical debt,
repossessions, utilities, retail, collections, and more. One of the few exceptions is
defaulted student loans.

One of the sneaky debt collection industry tactics is to re-age consumer accounts, so
they can continue to attempt to collect payment from you. Along with causing you to
have a bad credit score by reporting negative information on your credit reports,
regarding this account.

6. Settle Legit Debts

If your debt is validated, and within the statute of limitations then you’ll want to negotiate
a settlement agreement directly with the collection agency. There’s two vital keys with
this and the first is to always negotiate to settle your account for less.

Typically you’ll be able to settle for as little as 10% up to 40% of the total balance, and
the exact figure will often be determined by the age of your account. The older it gets,
the less you’ll likely have to pay. For example with a $700 debt you may be able to
settle for just 25% or $175.

The second key is that you must get the collection agency to agree to stop reporting
your account to all three credit bureaus, in exchange for your payment. If you overlook
this part of your agreement the only thing that will change when you make payment is
the status to a paid collection on your credit reports.

7. Erase Credit Report Dings

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We’re going to remove that debt collection by exercising your consumer rights under the
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This legislation empowers you to challenge and
dispute any item on your credit reports, that you believe is inaccurate, questionable, or
made in error.

This is how to clear bad credit and legally. This legislation was passed in direct
response to the overwhelming number of errors on consumer credit reports.

And according to a recent study by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) one in five
American’s have an error on their credit reports. Moreover one in 10 American’s have
an error serious enough to be significantly damaging their credit score.

Using our prior example, we’ll be challenging the accuracy of the collection on credit
report. You can file a credit bureau dispute online, over the phone, and by mail. Once
the credit bureaus receive your dispute and find it valid, then they’re required to
investigate the item.

During their investigation they’ll contact the lender, creditor, or company reporting the
account information about you and request verification of your account. If your account
isn’t verified, and in the case of our debt collection example that was part of our
settlement agreement, then the listing must be removed from your credit reports in
compliance with the FCRA.

It’s mission critical to clear credit history because these bad credit listings are what’s
damaging and dragging your credit score down. And while it’s true the maximum
amount of time derogatory items can legally remain on your credit report is seven years,
with specific types of bankruptcy being 10 years.

There is no minimum amount of time any item must remain on your credit report. As in
very often you can remove dings from your credit reports, and long before seven
expensive, embarrassing, and long years slowly expire.

Wrap Up

It’s an unavoidable fact collection agencies and credit bureaus are betting big money
you won’t exercise your rights. Evidence of this can be found in the multiple FTC fines
to both the three major credit bureaus and the debt collection industry for violating
consumer rights.

Look, every alphabet soup law on the books is passed for your protection as a
consumer. Don’t fall victim like so many others with the blasphemous belief that it’s
somehow illegal to remove so called accurate bad credit from your credit reports. As if
there’s some credit bureau SWAT team breaking down American’s front door.

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As a result of these seemingly business plans by the credit bureaus and debt collection
agencies we encourage our members to consider professional, legal, and top credit
repair companies to help.

One of the best firms is The Credit Pros. They’ll work with you to remove all those dings
from your credit report files because this is the biggest piece of your credit score pie
worth roughly 35% of your rating, and it’s called your payment history.

They’ve successfully removed late payments, charge offs, medical bills, judgements,
foreclosures, tax liens, and even bankruptcies from their client’s credit reports. One of
the coolest features is they provide is a pay per performance model, as in you’re only
responsible for payment when they successfully remove items from your credit report!

Stop paying exorbitant interest rates and suffering the embarrassment of a less than
perfect credit history and take action today and get a FREE credit consultation by calling
toll-free 1-877-418-7596.

The Credit Pros is a leading, legal, and legitimate credit repair company. They work on
your behalf to remove erroneous, questionable, and derogatory information from your
credit reports.

You see those credit report dings are the most frequent cause of a bad credit score.
This includes items such as: late payments, collections, charge offs, bankruptcies,
judgements, repossessions, etc.

The Credit Pros are headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, however they provide
service to clients in all 50 states. They’re BBB accredited with an A+ rating.

Originally founded in 2009 by Jason Kaplan and Damon DeCrescenzo, but don’t let
their youth fool you. Recently they were ranked by the prestigious publication Inc.
magazine as one of the fastest growing companies.

This is because they’re committed to providing their clients a five star experience. And
accomplish this by using a team of certified FICO professionals, your consumer rights,
and federal laws to fix credit report errors, dings, and damaging listings.

Along with providing you a one of a kind pay per result fee structure. As in you only pay
the Credit Pros when items are removed from your credit reports. More on that coming
up.

How The Credit Pros Work

The very first step is to call 1-877-418-7596 and get a free one-on-one credit
consultation with a FICO certified professional. You’ll next need to forward current
copies of all three of your credit reports.

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The Credit Pros have a number of weapons to deploy on your behalf, but typically they’ll
start by exercising your consumer rights granted by the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(FCRA). This piece of federal legislation gives you the right to dispute and challenge
any item on your credit report, so long as you believe it’s inaccurate.

This law also requires the credit bureaus to investigate consumer disputes. But did you
know the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined all three credit bureaus, multiple
times for violating consumer rights?

60 Minutes recently exposed how challenging the dispute process is for consumers with
Steve Kroft saying: “it’s extremely unlikely that anyone with the authority to resolve your
dispute will ever actually see it.” Moreover Ohio’s Attorney General says the credit
bureaus have an obligation to investigate disputes, but “they’re not doing an
investigation at all.”

As Meg Pasternak a victim of erroneous credit reporting errors says “You feel kinda
helpless because they got you under the gun if you need to get a new car, house, or
anything.” Julie Miller an Oregon resident, actually sued Equifax, after investing two
years into repairing credit report errors, all to little avail. She won and was awarded
$18.6 million in damages.

Look, the credit bureaus clearly have a system for handling consumer dispute requests.
It’s to frustrate the average consumer with the hopes they’ll just give up and live with
bad credit. This is what the industry has found to be the most cost effective way to
handle the avalanche of an estimated 8 million consumer dispute requests made every
year.

But this is your right, as a consumer, and it’s protected by federal law. Moreover the
FTC has studied the accuracy of consumer credit reports and found one in five
individuals has an error on their credit reports.

Further one in 10 American’s have an error serious enough to be causing substantial

credit score damage. This is a mistake, someone dialed the wrong phone number, or
punched in the wrong Social Security number. And you may be paying dearly for it!

The Credit Pros won’t promise any specific outcomes, but they do provide you with a
money back guarantee that they’ll clean credit report errors, mistakes, and inaccuracies.
In fact, if you don’t see items removed from your credit report within the first 90 days of
service, you can cancel and get a full refund.

Now once the credit bureaus deem your dispute request valid, only then will they
conduct an investigation. During which they’ll contact the lender or creditor and request
verification on your account.

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As per the FCRA, any item that can’t be verified on your credit report, must be removed.
This is proven to be the best, most effective way to fix bad credit, by removing the
negative items that are damaging your credit score.

If however your account is verified, then the item will remain on your credit report, or
updated with accurate information. However this doesn’t mean you just have to live with
bad credit for seven long, expensive, and painful years.

Credit Repair Weapons

In addition to the credit bureau dispute process both with the credit bureaus, and thanks
to new laws directly with the original creditor or lender. You’ll also have the ability to
deploy debt validation if you’re currently dealing with any aggressive debt collectors.

This is your right under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The Credit Pros
will request validation on your account, and on your behalf. This requires the collection
agency to provide poof, and evidence that your account is legit, within the legal time
period, and they own the rights to collect payment.

If they neglect to do this, then your no longer legally responsible for payment. And the
collection agency is suppose to notify the three credit bureaus to have them remove
collections from credit report files, regarding this account.

On the chance this is a legit debt, you can also have the Credit Pros send a cease and
desist letter on your behalf. This requires the collection agency to stop harassing you
and gives you the opportunity to live your life again with peace and harmony. Rather
than ducking and dodging more obnoxious, aggressive, and snarky debt collector calls.

You also get access to goodwill letters to creditors, this can be very effective at
removing late payments from credit report files. Along with unlimited dispute requests,
24/7 access to your client portal to keep you updated with your progress, and ID theft
restoration and insurance.

How Much Does The Credit Pros Cost

The Credit Pros have a one of a kind, pay per result fee structure. This is how it works,
you’ll be responsible for paying a low one time fee of $149.00 to get started. Keep in
mind, this one time fee is fully refundable if after 90 days you haven’t seen any items
removed from your credit report.

Now you sit back and relax. Only as items are removed from your credit reports, as in
results, will you then be responsible for payment. It’ll cost $50 per removal, per credit
bureau, and $75 for public records.

For example to remove a charge off listing from your Experian credit report, you’ll have
to pay $50, but only after the item’s been removed. However if you have a judgement

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on your Experian credit report, you’ll have to pay $75 because a judgement is a public
record, as in listed with the court house.

The best part of this unique fee structure is you’re only paying after you get results.
Along with being guaranteed a refund if for some rare circumstance they aren’t able to
legally remove items from your credit reports.

Big picture, you’re looking at investing a few hundred dollars, over a few months to get
better credit. Stack that against the overwhelming high cost of usurious interest rates,
deposits, and potential rejection for financing. It’s easy to see the benefit.

This isn’t even considering the expense a bad credit history causes to your self esteem,
pride, and even self worth. Did you know many employers in our brave new post Great
Recession world check potential job candidates credit history, before offering them a
position?

Take note you’ll need to purchase a credit monitoring service. This is a monthly fee of
$16.95 if you use the Credit Pros recommended service, but you can use any service of
your choice.

The purpose is to be able to provide your credit reports to the Credit Pros so they can
monitor your progress, along with updated reports, and deletion letters from the credit
bureaus. This keeps everyone on the same page with your case progress.

Money Back Guarantee

The Credit Pros are so committed to providing you with results, they provide a money
back guarantee. If you don’t see items removed from your credit report within the first 90
days of service, you can cancel and get a full refund.

They don’t promise any specific outcomes. And do guarantee that you’ll be treated
professionally, respectfully, and with courtesy. Your private information is protected and
secure, and all your requests will be responded to in a timely manner. And of course,
you can cancel your service any time.

What Items Can Be Removed

The Credit Pros can remove all erroneous credit report items including: collections, late
payments, charge offs, repossessions, bankruptcies, foreclosures, inquiries, incorrect
information, identity theft, errors, and any incorrect listings. This is the most effective
way to repair credit score files by cleaning up the negative listings.

Your credit score is a lot like a Grade Point Average (GPA). If you’re failing underwater
basket weaving but acing all your other classes, it matter’s not, your GPA is still going to
be screwed. In the credit scoring world, all the negative listings on your credit reports
are the failing grades, and are responsible for dragging your credit score into the pits.

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Wrap Up

If you’re working to achieve good credit, it’s mission critical to remove credit report
dings, negatives, and any questionable listings. In addition to using your current
accounts responsibly so you can build a trail of positive payment information. It’s a two
pronged approach.

Yet, most people just give up and volunteer to be victims of the credit bureaus,
collection agencies, and even predatory lenders. Despite the unfortunate truth that all
these guys have a vested interest in you and every consumer having less than perfect
credit, so they can earn more profits.

The Credit Pros have a vested interest in cleaning up your credit report, and working
with you to legally, ethically, and legitimately repair bad credit. In addition to providing
you ongoing education and understanding about how exactly our credit system works.

We need not share the many horror stories of well intentioned consumers paying off
delinquent debts with the false belief that this will clear bad credit. Nor the many
blasphemous credit bureau public relation campaigns to try and convince the general
public that it’s somehow illegal to dispute accurate credit report listings.

As if there’s some credit bureau SWAT team kicking in people’s front door. Listen, every
last alphabet soup law has been passed for your protection, as a consumer.

Take action to protect and exercise your consumer rights, and get a FREE credit
consultation with an experienced FICO certified professional by calling toll-free
1-877-418-7596.

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The Ironclad Credit Bureau
Dispute Process
There’s been abundant research into the accuracy of credit reporting and all with wildly
different findings. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) invested eight years studying
this issue and they concluded that one in five American’s credit reports contain an error.

Further one in ten American’s credit report contain an error that can lower their credit
score. In other words, there are millions of American’s with less than perfect credit
because of a mistake.

And this doesn’t account for the millions and more likely billions of dollars consumers
have had to pay because of these mistakes with higher interest rates, upfront deposits,
etc. Nor the potential embarrassment of being rejected for a line of credit.

First it’s important to get an understanding of how the credit system works. The three
major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) collect information about you
from lenders and creditors, and this is your credit report.

Then Fair Isaac Corporation also commonly known as FICO will take all three of your
credit reports, input it into their secret black magic credit scoring algorithm and out pops
your three digit credit score or FICO score. This number dictates your quality of life, your
lifestyle, and virtually every aspect of your life in our brave new world.

Your Consumer Rights

Look, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the legislation that entitles you to dispute
credit report items, and any item that you believe is inaccurate, questionable, or made in
error. There’s been a number of amendments to this law, most notably the Fair and
Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) which entitles you to a free copy of all
three of your credit reports, once every 12 months.

You can request your free copies by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com. This is a website
created by the FTC and in partnership with the credit bureaus. You can not request your
free copy directly from the credit bureaus. Alternatively you can request your free copy
by calling 1-877-322-8228 or by mail at:

Annual Credit Report Request Service

P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348

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Credit Bureau Dispute Options

There are three ways to file a credit bureau dispute: online, over the phone, and by mail.
We strongly encourage you to file your dispute by mail and send it certified, by the way
this is what the FTC website advises in an article.

This way you’ll have evidence of your dispute request. You’ll need to create a credit
dispute letter along with including copies of any documentation or evidence that
supports your case. The FTC website also has a sample dispute letter for consumers.

The other two options are over the phone, and by mail. The problem with these two
options, albeit much more convenient, is their is a history of the credit bureaus ignoring
consumer disputes, at least made over the phone.

Many years hence the credit bureaus were required by the FTC to create toll-free phone
number for consumers to file a dispute. What they didn’t require of the credit bureaus is
to hire staff members to actually answer these phones.

Obvious yes, but there were complaints by the boat load and reports of consumers
waiting up to 30 hours on hold. The FTC again fined all three credit bureaus over one
million dollars collectively, but as many experts have pointed out over the years it’s more
cost effective for the credit bureaus to pay fines, that to actually follow regulations.

This is for a multitude of reasons but foremost the credit bureaus only investigate
consumer disputes because of the FCRA. And they’ve been fined for violating consumer
rights multiple times by the FTC.

Listen the credit bureaus only spend money when they investigate consumer disputes.
These are private for profit businesses, and according to a 60 Minutes story on CBS this
is a $4 billion dollar a year industry. You can buy stock in two of the three major credit
bureaus today.

Many consumer’s falsely believe these guys are government agencies or have some
affiliation, rather than being regulated by our government. In fact the credit bureaus
invest millions of dollars in public relations campaigns to promulgate many forsaken
beliefs including:

That it’s illegal to remove accurate bad credit for seven long, expensive, and
embarrassing years. As if there’s some credit bureau SWAT team that’s going to kick
down your front door, in the middle of the night because you disputed an item you knew
was accurate.

You’re simply exercising your rights as a consumer when you file a dispute. Moreover
when you file a dispute that’s how you test if an item is truly accurate or inaccurate.

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The forsaken belief that you just have to live with bad credit for a seven long years, or
ten years for a bankruptcy. This is the maximum amount of time an item can legally be
on your credit report.

There is no minimum amount of time an item must remain on your credit report. In fact
creditors and lenders aren’t required to report any information about your account to the
credit bureaus.

You’ll also see many websites including the credit bureau’s websites encouraging
consumers to file a dispute online. There is less information that you can provide if you
file your dispute online, and to believe the credit bureaus all of a sudden changed their
procedures and will handle an online dispute with any competence, is simply wishful
thinking.

On a sidebar, one of the amendments to the FCRA now provides you with the
opportunity to dispute the information furnisher directly, as in the lender or creditor. If
you choose to do this, that’s fine, but make sure you file a dispute directly with the credit
bureaus too.

We suspect the credit bureaus are delighted to have more than 50% of consumer
disputes filed online or by phone, because they receive over 8 million disputes per year.
Simply to handle that many disputes by mail would require a small army of staff, versus
online or over the phone.

Keep in mind the credit bureaus want you to file your dispute online. And that’s reason
enough to make sure to use old fashioned snail mail.

Credit Bureau Investigation

Once the credit bureaus receive your dispute and find it valid, then they’ll investigate the
listing. During an investigation they’ll contact the information provider and request
verification of your account and the relevant information.

If your account can not be verified then in accordance with the FCRA the credit bureau
must remove that item from your credit report. If however the item is verified then it’ll
remain on your report. You’ll receive your results in writing and a free copy of your credit
report if there was a change or update.

Typically you’ll hear from the credit bureaus within 30 days if they’re investigating or if
your dispute is found to be so called frivolous. All too frequently consumer disputes are
found to be frivolous, because the credit bureaus are private for profit businesses.

This enables them to avoid the expense of conducting an investigation and is done
solely with the purpose to discourage consumers with the hope they’ll just give up and
live with a bad credit history. This is what birthed the professional and legal bad credit
repair industry.

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Mike DeWine, the attorney general for Ohio, called the credit bureau dispute process “a
secret operation that is so hard to crack” as he investigates what him and many others
call a blatant, fundamental, violation of the FCRA and consumer rights. This isn’t new
it’s been going on for decades.

The biggest problem is the politicians because in predictable fashion they’ll always be
pulling tricks. In this case the decision to let the credit bureaus choose if a consumer
dispute is valid or frivolous is exactly like asking the credit bureaus if they want to be
really profitable today or only so so profitable.

In business and capitalism every business is suppose to choose profits, that’s the
scoreboard in business. However the credit bureaus greed and more accurately
violations of the law have brought this issue massive media attention recently.

In the 60 Minutes story they claimed that most consumer dispute information is
investigated by credit bureau staff members living in India, Philippines, or South
America. They went on to interview three former employees who said they were given
no investigation tools, and were expected to always find in favor of the creditor and
lender. There is now a federal court order to have these folks testify.

You see, finally more than just a handful of consumer attorneys see the blatant truth that
it’s much more cost effective for the credit bureaus to pay fines for violating consumer
rights, than to investigate consumer disputes and follow the law. Continuously the credit
bureaus are sued not only by our government but also by individual consumers.

One of the most recent examples is in 2013 when Equifax was found liable for $18.6
million by a jury in Oregon. Check out the ABC news story on Julie Miller who invested
two years trying to fix credit report errors and inaccuracies, all to little avail. And this is
simply one example including many similar instances such as Judy Thomas in the 60
Minutes story.

Hopefully you’re not in these extreme cases where you need to file a lawsuit. If you’re
primary goal is to clean up credit report errors and erase derogatory listings, this is a
much easier pathway. Moreover this is proven to be one of the most effective ways to
repair bad credit and improve your credit worthiness.

You see, this negative, derogatory, and damaging information is what’s responsible for
pulling your credit score down. Your FICO score is much like a GPA or grade point
average.

If you’re failing your underwater basket weaving course, but acing all your other classes
your GPA is still going to be screwed. And FICO openly acknowledges the better your
credit score is, the more damage you’ll see if you get slapped with a negative listing on
your credit report.

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David and Goliath

Listen, most folks feel like their living the ancient biblical story as David going into battle
against the almighty Goliath when working to clear credit history errors. And the truth is
even with the multitudes of alphabet soup laws passed to protect you, you don’t even
have as good a odds as David did before battle with Goliath.

We encourage our members to consider professional and legal credit repair companies.
Don’t let your rights get trampled by the credit bureaus, lenders, or debt collectors. Take
action and get a free credit consultation by calling toll-free 1-877-418-7596.

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 How Does Credit Repair
Work – 4 Facts Exposed
If you’re suffering from a few dings on your credit report, and a less than perfect credit
score, then know that yes credit repair does work if properly deployed. The purpose of
this article is to expose how exactly does credit repair work, and how you can use it to
repair credit.

1. The Seven Year Myth

You’ve surely heard some talking head on TV claim you must live with a bad credit
listing on your credit reports for seven long years. Or worse that it’s somehow illegal to
remove so called accurate bad credit before seven years.

The truth is plainly said in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This legislation says
that an item can only remain on your credit report for a maximum of seven years, and
ten years for a bankruptcy.

But there is no minimum amount of time any item must remain on your credit report. Did
you know creditors aren’t required to report any information about your account?

This law also entitles you to dispute credit report items, in order to challenge and
potentially remove inaccurate, questionable, and derogatory information on your credit
report. When you dispute the credit bureaus you’re simply exercising your rights granted
by the FCRA.

To falsely believe this is somehow illegal is tantamount to claiming it’s illegal for women
to vote. You can rest easy because there’s no credit bureau SWAT team that’s going to
bust down your door in the middle of the night because you filed a dispute on an item
you knew was accurate.

2. Accurate Credit Reporting

It’s a widely held belief that the credit bureaus are some type of government agency, or
give a flip about the average Joe consumer. According to a study by the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) one in five American’s have an error on their credit report.

Additionally one in ten American’s have an error on their credit reports that is
significantly damaging their credit score. To be clear this means, millions of American’s

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are suffering from lower credit scores, higher interest rates, and excessive
embarrassment because of someone else’s mistake.

You see, the way our credit system works is arguably similar to the judicial system,
you’re guilty until proven innocent. Creditors, lenders, collection agencies can and do
regularly report blatantly wrong information on consumer’s credit reports.

In fact collection agencies have sued and won judgments against the wrong person.
Can you imagine waking up tomorrow to learn you have a judgement on credit report
files which is debilitating to your credit worthiness.

Listen, there is no burden of proof for a creditor to report negative information about
your account to the credit bureaus, and you’re assumed guilty. This is why congress
originally passed the FCRA, so consumers would have a way to remove errors from
their credit reports.

3. Credit Bureau Dispute Process

While the law is on your side to file a credit bureau dispute, many folks feel like they’re
living in the ancient biblical story as David going into battle with Goliath. CBS 60
Minutes recently reported a story about how convoluted and difficult and virtually
impossible for consumers to remove the most blatant of errors from their credit reports.

This is also why Equifax was found liable for $18.6 million in 2013 to a woman named
Julie Miller. She’d invested two years trying to fix bad credit that was easily identified as
an error, and all to little avail.

Look, the FCRA requires the credit bureaus to accept consumer disputes. Moreover it
requires the credit bureaus to investigate these disputes and remove any item that can’t
be verified with the creditor.

The big challenge and where most people give up is with believing the credit bureaus
care about the accuracy of your credit report. Because while they’re required to
investigate disputes these only cost them money.

In other words the credit bureaus don’t earn a dime and only spend money, by following
the law and investigating consumer disputes. It’s about as difficult as going to your local
grocery store and convincing the cashier to give you one penny out of the register.

It’s virtually impossible, further with your credit report disputes you’re making your
request by mail, online, or over the phone. You’ll never speak to a decision maker, and
according to the 60 Minutes story your investigation will be done by someone not living
in America.

The credit bureaus are private for profit businesses, and you can buy stock in two of
them today. This is a $4 billion a year industry, and most of that money is generated by

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selling information the credit bureaus collect about you, to your potential lenders and
creditors.

4. The Forsaken Path of Frustration

The typical response to consumer dispute attempts is for the credit bureaus to reply
claiming the dispute is invalid or frivolous. And requesting additional information.

This is done only in hope of frustrating you, and convincing you to just give up and live
with a bad credit history. And these tactics work, along with the millions of dollars the
credit bureaus pump into public relations campaigns to perpetuate the many false
beliefs concerning how to repair bad credit.

You can clean credit history blemishes, errors, and derogatory items yourself but
anticipate frustration and jumping through many bureaucratic hoops. Alternatively you
can look into hiring professional credit repair help.

The legitimate credit repair companies will deploy the credit bureau dispute process on
your behalf. This can be done inexpensively and around $100 per month, obviously
you’ll need to use a service for a few months, depending upon the severity of your case.

In total you’re looking at a few hundred dollars which is naturally recouped with a good
credit score. And the best credit repair companies will also help you when it comes to
dealing with aggressive debt collectors. This snarky industry is riddled with less than
ethical operators whose business plan is to violate consumer rights.

Wrap Up

Look, the credit bureaus along with the collection agencies are betting you won’t
exercise your consumer rights. Did you know the credit bureaus have been fined
multiple times by the FTC for violating consumer rights? And debt collection agencies
are fined every year by the FTC.

Stop being a victim of bad credit, accurate or not. Take action because these blemishes
and dings on your credit report is what’s causing a bad credit score. Get a free credit
consultation by calling toll-free 1-877-418-7596.

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Medical Bills In Collections
- 4 Keys
One of the immediate results of Obamacare and free health care for all, has been the
skyrocketing of insurance deductibles. Yet our politicians completely disregard the fact
that medical debt has been and continues to be the leading cause for people to file
bankruptcy.

The worst part is most people with astronomical medical debt, are insured. In fact the
Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CPFB) another one of our bloated government
watch dog agencies, found that 43 million American’s have medical bills on credit report
files. Moreover many of these folks “show no other evidence of financial distress.”

In other words, medical debt which is notoriously known for being riddled with errors, is
screwing up millions of American’s credit scores. Fair Issac Corporation, the company
that calculates your credit score or FICO score, has recently updated their scoring
algorithm to weigh medical debt less.

But only for folks that only have medical debt on their credit report, so if you’ve been a
victim of identity theft and you get sick, you’re doubly screwed now! FICO also says that
collections on credit report files can damage your score by up to 100 points.

And while the credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) have recently agreed
to wait 180 days before they include an outstanding medical debt collection on your
credit report, we as consumers should take very little comfort. This should be a lesson
to all young, liberal, bleeding hearts that good intentions pave the path to hell.

It’s one of the few guarantees of Obamacare is more folks dealing with medical debt,
filing bankruptcy, and paying taxes. On a sidebar, the credit bureaus have agreed to
remove medical debt notations promptly if your insurance company ultimately pays the
bill.

4 Tips For Medical Bills In Collections

If you’re currently suffering from the harassing phone calls and threatening letters from
debt collectors, you’ll need to fully understand and grasp your consumer rights. The Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) spells all of your rights out.

The big takeaways are debt collectors are suppose to behave in a rational fashion and
provide you with a modicum of respect and dignity. You can send them a cease and

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desist letter to prevent them from contacting you anymore. And it lays out the exact time
of day they can call and who they can talk to about your debt, among more details.

1. Request Account Validation

The very first step to dealing with medical collections is to request debt validation on
your account. This is your consumer right and it requires the collection agency to
respond by providing you with documents and evidence that proved this is your
account, and they own the collection rights.

If they’re unable to validate your debt, then it’s forgiven and you’re no longer legally
responsible for payment. And it get’s better because this is how to get collections off
credit report, for the collection agency is suppose to notify the credit bureaus to remove
any information regarding this account.

2. Statute of Limitations

If they do validate your account, then you’ll want to inspect the documents for your date
of last activity on your account. You see, medical debt is one of the types of consumer
debt that is covered under the statute of limitations. This is the legal time window for
which you’re responsible for payment.

Once this time expires then the debt is forgiven. Frequently it’s about seven years from
the date of last activity, however every state has a specific statute of limitations, so
please investigate your local listings.

3. Negotiate a Settlement

If your debt is valid and legit, you’ll next want to negotiate directly with the collection
agency to settle your account. First it’s mission critical to always to negotiate to settle
the account for much less than the total balance.

Often you can negotiate to pay a mere 10% up to 40% of the total. For instance with a
$800 debt you may be able to settle for just 20% or $160. It’s an essential ingredient
however that before you make payment, you get the collection agency to agree that in
exchange for your payment, they’ll stop reporting your account information to the credit
bureaus.

If you neglect this part of your negotiations, then when you make payment the only thing
that will change is the status of the collection on credit report files. It’ll change to a paid
collection and this is still a negative, derogatory credit report notation and it’ll damage
your credit score.

4. Credit Bureau Dispute

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Look, with the agreement after you make payment you’ll next need to exercise
additional consumer rights. Specifically we’re talking about the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(FCRA) this law entitles you to challenge and dispute any item on your credit report, that
you believe is questionable.

You can file your dispute online, over the phone, and by mail. And you’ll need to file a
dispute directly with each of the three credit bureaus, assuming the medical collection is
on all three of your credit reports.

Once the credit bureaus receive your dispute and deem it valid, they’ll conduct an
investigation. During which they’ll contact the collection agency that’s reporting the
negative listing and request verification of your account.

As per your settlement agreement with the collection agency, they won’t verify your
account with the credit bureaus. According to the FCRA any item the credit bureaus
can’t verify must be removed from your credit report. This is how to fix your credit and
remedy the true cause for a low credit score, the bad credit listings.

Rundown

It should come as no surprise that according to a Gallup poll 76% of respondents think
that society will benefit “if employees take responsibility for their own health care and
retirement.” It’s simply one of many examples of politicians and their predictable tricks.

Most people also falsely believe that you must just live with bad credit for seven long,
expensive, and embarrassing years. Moreover they’ll even claim that it’s illegal to
remove so called accurate bad credit items on your credit report, before seven years.

Like there is some credit bureau SWAT team out there breaking down American’s front
doors for disputing credit report items, they really knew were accurate. Sure, to the
liberal bleeding hearts and we should also make Donald Trump pay more taxes, rather
than use his money to create more jobs, and literally turn the wheels of our economy.

Listen, every single one of the many alphabet soup laws that have been passed are
there for you, the consumer. The government ain’t passing any laws to help the credit
bureaus or the collection agencies. In fact they sue these guys on a regular basis for
violating consumer rights.

Having less than perfect credit is not only expensive, humbling, but it’s unnecessary. We
live in a capitalist society and money walks, so anytime you pay off a debt, if done the
right way, your credit should benefit. But most people just pay, and the collection
agencies are betting this is what you’ll do too.

This is why we encourage our members to consider professional and legal credit repair
companies. Stop living with a bad credit history and take action to get the credit score
you truly deserve. Get a free credit consultation by calling toll-free 1-877-418-7596.

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 How To Rebuild Credit
After Bankruptcy
Obviously, your grand plans with life certainly didn’t include a bankruptcy. And yet, here
we’re. Please, relax life happens and no one intends to experience life’s lemons, but of
course we all do.

The purpose of this article is to share exactly how to rebuild credit after bankruptcy,
along with the impact it’ll have on your credit score, and more. Because no matter how
you’ve come to be here, this is reality and you’re not alone, in just 2014 over 930,000
folks filed for bankruptcy.

Now we can start putting the pieces back together. Let it be known you’re in good
company and traveling down the same path as many of the best, brightest, greatest
American entrepreneurs from Walt Disney, Conrad Hilton, David Buick, James Folger,
Larry King and countless more.

How Long Does Bankruptcy Stay On Your Credit Report?

If you’ve filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy, this notation will remain on your credit report for
a maximum of seven years. However if you’ve filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, this mark will
stay on your credit report for a maximum of 10 years.

You’ll also have a number of additional listings on your credit reports that will say
discharged, included in bankruptcy, etc. These are the items that prior were being
reported as delinquent.

How Long Does Bankruptcy Affect Your Credit?

This will directly depend on you, the actions you take to rebuild credit after bankruptcy,
and of course your specific circumstances. One little know truth is that many folks live
with a bad credit history for much longer than necessary.

This is a result of many factors, many will discuss in detail coming up. The takeaway is
that contrary to popular false belief you don’t have to just live with a bad credit score for
seven or 10 long years.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the legislation that says this and it says the
maximum amount of time an item can legally remain on your credit report is seven

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years. It doesn’t say anything about a minimum amount of time any item must remain
on your credit report.

Moreover many folks suffer for much longer than the legal time period. In fact many
folks feel like they been dropped in a hole to forever be viewed as a second class
citizen because of financial difficulties. Don’t just be one more of the many bloody, bad
credit carcasses, sitting around waiting. You must take action to repair your credit and
immediately.

Credit Score After Bankruptcy

You’ve probably discovered a bankruptcy on credit report files will virtually obliterate
your credit score, but not forever and surely not for seven to 10 long, expensive, and
embarrassing years. Let’s first share how and who actually calculates your credit score.

FICO or Fair Isaac Corporation is a third party company responsible for calculating the
vast majority of consumer credit scores. They do this by using the information contained
on all three of your credit reports with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

They take your data and plug it into their super secret, complex, mathematical algorithm
and out pops your credit score or FICO score. This not only determines approval or
rejection with financing, this three digit little number virtually governs every aspect of
your life. Potentially even where you work, as one of the trends in our brave new world
is for employers to check a job applicants credit before offering them a position.

The credit scoring algorithm looks at five factors, beginning with your payment history.
This is worth about 35% of your score and is composed of all the accounts on your
credit reports. The second component is your amounts owed, also known as your
utilization ratio.

This is examining your total debt and comparing that to your available credit. This is
worth 30% of your FICO score. These first two credit score components are where you
should focus efforts to repair credit after bankruptcy.

The third item is your length of credit, as in how long you’ve been using credit, and the
age of each specific account. This is given 15% of your score. The fourth item is types
of credit, do you have a credit card, mortgage, car loan? And the fifth item is new credit
or how often your applying to finance a purchase. These last two items are each worth
10% of your credit score.

How To Build Credit After Bankruptcy

We’re focusing here on building a trail of positive payment history and improving your
utilization ratio. This is considered your amounts owed and worth 30% of your total
credit score, the second most important component.

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Of course, we need to pay all your current bills on-time every month. This will begin to
build your credit because it’ll establish a trail of positive payment history. We’re also
going to take action to improve your utilization ratio by showing available unused credit.

In as little as 60 days from filing bankruptcy you’ll start receiving credit card solicitations.
Many of these offers will be for secured credit cards. The difference between a secured
credit card and unsecured credit card is that with a secure account you’ll need to make
a deposit with the credit card issuer.

This deposit is fully refundable, provided you don’t default on your payments. Once
you’ve made your deposit you’ll be issued a major Visa or MasterCard with a limit equal
to the amount of your deposit. For instance if you deposit $500 you’ll be issued a
secured MasterCard or Visa with a limit of $500.

Where as an unsecured credit card you aren’t required to make a deposit. Unsecured
credit cards are traditional cards where your issued a card only on your promise to
make payments. Unfortunately due to governmental interference unsecured credit cards
now require at a minimum a fair credit score.

Secured credit cards have been designed for folks with less than perfect credit.
Because the lender’s risk is eliminated by way of your security deposit. And while a
secured account won’t be given as much weight as an unsecured account, this is a
proven method to help build credit.

We’ll also need to focus on your utilization ratio which is comparing your total debt and
your available unused credit. Look, having substantial debt isn’t the worst thing, after all
many folks have large student loans, mortgages, car loans, etc.

The takeaway is to have available unused credit. This is most effective with revolving
credit lines, such as a secured credit card. For example, if you have a limit of $500 then
you’d want to keep a monthly balance at about 30% of your limit, or $150.

This will provide you with $350 of available unused credit. Obviously you’ll be viewed by
creditors and lenders as much better applicant if you have $350 of available credit
versus if your credit card is maxed out.

Generally you’ll want to keep your monthly balance at less than 30% and some folks
even claim as low as just 10% of your limit, in our example that would be a mere $50.
The big picture goal is simply to have available unused credit because this will provide
your credit score help.

On a side with responsible use, you’ll likely be able to get approved for an unsecured
credit card within 12 to 24 months. And because your account is secured you’ll be given
a much more reasonable APR% or interest rate.

How To Rebuild Credit After Bankruptcy

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In this step we’re discussing your payment history, which is the most important
component of your credit score and worth 35%. We’re going to work on clearing
negatives, dings, and derogatory listings from your credit reports.

You see, your credit score is a lot like your GPA or grade point average. If you’re acing
all your classes except you’re failing underwater basket weaving, your GPA is going to
be all screwed up. The same is true for your credit score, those dings on your credit
reports are like failing underwater basket weaving.

The FCRA is the primary weapon that empowers us to clear credit history dings,
negatives, and derogatory listings. This legislation empowers you to dispute and
challenge the accuracy of any item on your credit reports.

You can file your credit bureau disputes online, over the phone, and by mail. Once the
credit bureaus receive your dispute and deem it valid, then they’ll investigate by
contacting the lender, creditor, or company that’s reporting negative information about
you and request verification of the account.

If your account can not be verified, then in accordance with the FCRA the credit bureaus
must remove the item from your credit report. This is how to clear bad credit and legally.
And new laws now make it possible to dispute directly the creditor, lender, or company
reporting the information about you.

The big key with this step is you must first dispute and remove the listings that reference
your bankruptcy. For instance the status next to these accounts will say something
along the lines of included in bankruptcy or discharged in bankruptcy.

This is where we need to focus your efforts initially, rather than on the bankruptcy listing
itself. You see, if we start with disputing the bankruptcy listing these other accounts will
verify the item. Instead, we need to erase the related accounts and once those are
eliminated, then we can remove bankruptcy from credit report files.

Life After Bankruptcy

Listen, just because you’ve experienced financial adversity doesn’t doom you forever to
pay exorbitant interest rates, large down payments, overwhelming embarrassment, or
declare that you’re somehow undeserving of credit. Life happens.

However one thing you must do is to get started on the road to fix bad credit, because
you can legally and long before seven or 10 years. It requires you to take action and
discover your consumer rights, so they aren’t violated like most folks are.

We encourage our members to consider professional, legal, and legitimate credit repair
companies to help with this. Take action today and get a free credit consultation by
calling toll-free 1-877-418-7596.

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